Chapter 1: Awakening Before the Creation of the World 3
On the shores of corpses, far from the sun, I saw a hall, its doors facing north; venomous snakes served as thatch on the roof, their venom constantly seeping in.
A river flowed through the Poison Valley, its waters teeming with knives and swords, called the River of Slippery Slide, where killers and the cursed would wade.
The poisonous dragon Nidhogg was feeding on the corpses; this fire-breathing black dragon had emerged from the Black Mountains, soaring across the land, its wings carrying death…
—The Great Edda
"…"
In the beginning, heaven and earth and the sea awaited creation; the vast abyss of the Jinlunga Canal was not yet fully formed, and as far as the eye could see, there was only desolation. 1
Only the dazzling flames from Muspelheim illuminated the void, this was before chaos. 1
The pervasive mist and falling snowflakes formed a grey dome, shrouding Niflheim in biting cold and boundless darkness. 1
Beneath the frozen soil of Niflheim, the Land of Mist, the black dragon opened its eyes.
"Something has been born?"
The black dragon was not originally of this world. Long ago, it was a god of another world; even longer ago, it was a human.
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However, upon arriving in this world, it was rejected by its previous inhabitants and forced to traverse countless inconceivable realms until it finally arrived here.
For many years, all it had seen, besides ice and mist, was a single living creature—the fire giant Surtur, who spent his days wielding his sword against the cliffs of Muspelheim, causing countless sparks to fly.
When it first arrived in this world, it had clashed with that fire giant. The deafening roar of Surtur striking the cliffs with his sword kept the black dragon awake, leading to a fierce battle that shook the Golden Rift, causing the thick, perpetually frozen ice to fall into the Land of Fire, releasing endless vapors. Unable to defeat each other, they could only occupy the Land of Mist and the Land of Fire respectively, separated by the magnificent Jinlunga Canal.
Upon seeing the fire giant, the black dragon realized it seemed to have been transported into Norse mythology.
But at this time, mythology had not yet begun, heaven and earth had not yet been created, and the stars had not yet been arranged.
The black dragon had thought its life would continue like this forever: slumbering and waking, waking and falling asleep, each time it opened its eyes to the same desolate scene, a never-ending cycle.
But this time seemed different. At least it hadn't heard Surtur's hammering sound after waking. This was a good omen, meaning it would be much easier to fall asleep next time.
The black dragon shook its body, and the snow that had accumulated on it formed glaciers. Now, with the black dragon's awakening, the glaciers cracked into icebergs, which then disintegrated into blocks of ice, falling layer by layer. The vibrations from the falling ice were even greater than the sound of Surtur's sword striking the ground.
But the black dragon, finding it too slow, spread its wings, fanning the ice covering its body. Those wings, blotting out the sky, could have completely obscured the source of the inexhaustible spring—Hvagmir Spring—when laid flat on the ground. The spring water gushing from it scattered throughout the Land of Mist, spreading into twelve great rivers. One of these rivers, its waters seemingly pure and clear due to the black dragon's years of drawing water, was actually extremely poisonous.
These rivers, like long silver serpents, coiled around Niflheim, twisting and turning in all directions. As they slowly lost heat, they froze into massive glaciers. The frozen rivers and falling snowflakes accumulated together, and over the years, they transformed Niflheim into a vast ice field, freezing the black dragon beneath the ice.
After much effort, the black dragon finally cleared the ice from its body.
Only then did it have time to look up, and there it saw the largest thing in its life. What is the largest thing in the world?
Is it the Vimur River, Niflheim's longest river?
No, while the Vimur River stretches far and wide, it has an end—the inexhaustible spring of Hvagmir.
So, is the eternally boiling cauldron, Hvagmir, the largest thing in the world?
Of course not. While Hvagmir is enormous, when the black dragon sleeps and lays its wings flat, the membrane between its shoulder blades and the toe bone of its right wing is enough to cover the entire spring.
The black dragon is already so enormous, so is it the largest thing in the world?
No, Surtur, the fire giant and master of the Land of Fire, is even larger than the black dragon. During the great battle, the black dragon's wings blotted out the sky, and it spewed poisonous gas from its mouth. Yet, even so, its entire body, from its ferocious head to its thin, withered tail, was barely the same length as Surtur's divine sword. And Surtur could wield this sword without ceasing.
The fire giant was already so enormous, surely there was nothing larger in the world?
The black dragon once thought so.
Now it was wrong.
The snowflakes falling from the Land of Mist and the springs gushing from Hvagmir continued to expand the ice field, forging new glaciers. These glaciers were so solid that they continued to spread beyond the borders of the Land of Mist, now hanging high above the Jinlenga Canal, their surfaces adorned with mottled patterns formed by the black dragon's poisonous spray.
The flames of Muspelheim in the south were not to be outdone. The tongues of fire that erupted from Surtur's striking of the cliffs burned ever brighter, each burst of flame more powerful than the last. Countless sparks flew out, carrying with them intense heat that scattered in all directions, forming persistent heat waves that gradually eroded the frost north of the chasm.
Thus, the frost of the Land of Mist devoured the heat of the Land of Fire, transforming into countless white wisps of mist.
And so, amidst the rising mist, amidst the intertwining of ice and fire, a giant larger than the fire giant Surtur, more magnificent than the entire Kinggalon Chasm, was born.
"The progenitor of the frost giants... Ymir?"
The black dragon opened its translucent eyelids, revealing dim, yellowish vertical pupils, and carefully examined the unprecedented behemoth before it.
Yes, before it.
Beneath Ymir's colossal body, the distance from the ice of the Land of Mist to the misty abyss above the Kinggalon Canal was negligible. Even if the black dragon were to soar high, flapping its wings three thousand times, truly traversing tens of thousands of miles to reach Ymir, the visible portion of her body would likely not be much larger than it appeared now.
The Founding Titan's face compressed the black dragon's vision, encompassing the entire universe. Its chin touched the Land of Fire in the south, while its forehead reached straight to the Land of Mist in the north. The rising moisture condensed into dewdrops beneath this unprecedentedly giant's face, forming vast lakes upon impact. The space above, below, left, right, front, and back seemed to be compressed by this giant, making even the empty void feel suffocating.
So, was this Founding Frost Titan, Ymir, the largest thing in the world?
"Moo!"
In an instant, the ice beneath the black dragon's feet shattered from the earth-shattering sound. For the first time, it found the sound of the fire giant Surtur's hammering surprisingly pleasant, far better than the bellowing of a bull that shook the entire world!
Behind the frost giant, obscured by his massive body, born alongside Ymir was a gigantic cow—Odrumbula.
Amidst the cow's noisy commotion, Ymir opened her eyes.